Last night, Janna and I were rushing home after teaching in New York City, and in the middle of Times Square, I had a moment I hope I never get to repeat. I tripped — over my own two feet, or the curb, or a break in the sidewalk — and instantly fell long and hard on the sidewalk. I was stunned for a moment and didn’t quite know where I was. Janna was behind me somewhere and I remember one woman bending down to ask me if I was okay.
I am concerned with an ongoing effort in the scientific community to prove, once-and-for all, that some of us are genetically predestined to be lazy. It seems there are those among us who are natural-born couch potatoes. If laziness become a medical condition, then I’m sure we’ll soon see a category of disability that will then offer the lazier among us a Federally paid way of life for sitting around all day watching television.
Continue reading → The Biology of Alzheimer’s and Couch Potato Rat DNA
Science has proven when an animal is trapped by fire it will always try to flee the flames, even if that means leaping off a ledge or jumping into unknown waters and into death. We saw evidence of that self-salvation in the brutality of the World Trade Center as people willingly leapt from windows one hundred storeys above the ground — some even joined hands in the free-fall — just to escape the fireball burning their bodies.
This week I read analysis suggesting how a canny Democrat contender for the presidency in 2008 would use “protectionism against China” as a platform for winning by forbidding all import/export with China until they agreed to make those exchanges equal on both sides.
That position, it was reasoned, would made America look strong and not left behind and tugging on China’s coattails like a child left behind.
You must be logged in to post a comment.